Do you want to create culinary magic? Fill homemade puff pastry rounds with wild huckleberries and prepare to be wowed. These flaky little four-bite pastries will melt in your mouth, and I’m telling you, there is nothing that compares to the flavor of huckleberries.
Of course, if you don’t have access to huckleberries, blueberries are a good option. I found frozen organic wild blueberries that are impossible to tell apart from huckleberries, so use whichever variety you can get your hands on.
Rough puff pastry is really very simple to make. (You could use store bought puff pastry, but it will be more crisp and brittle.) Once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably want to use it for lots of other treats, like danish, croissants, or strudel. Here are two of my favorite strudel recipes: Sour Cream Apple Strudel and Sausage Breakfast Strudel. The dough can hang out in the fridge for days (let it sit out on the counter for 30 minutes before using or it’ll be really hard to roll out) or can be frozen. It’s not much harder to make a double batch, and it’s wonderful to have some tucked away for later.
I made the dough and filling the night before and rolled, cut, filled, and baked the little puffs the next morning – in about an hour. You know what makes it go really, really fast? A potsticker press! You can find one for less than $5.00 on Amazon (search for “dumpling press”) or at an Asian market, and I know you’ll find many uses for it. It won’t languish in your kitchen drawer, I promise.
I’d go for the cheap plastic model. This one has lasted years.
Go easy on the filling!
| Huckleberry Puffs | Print |
- HUCKLEBERRY FILLING:
- 1 cup fresh or frozen berries
- pinch salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 2½ teaspoons cornstarch if using fresh berries, OR...
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch if using frozen berries
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- ROUGH PUFF DOUGH:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
- ⅔ cups ice water
- ASSEMBLY:
- 1 egg white
- Powdered sugar for dusting, or drizzle with a simple powdered sugar/water glaze
- FILLING: In small pan, combine berries, sugar, and salt over medium heat, stirring continuously until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Pour or spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the hot berry juice into a small cup or bowl and add the lemon juice. Stir. Slowly add cornstarch, stirring until smooth. If necessary, add a bit more berry juice.
- Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the berries and turn heat back to medium. Stir until the mixture thickens, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow filling to cool. (To cool quickly, place pan in shallow bowl of ice water.) Once cool, refrigerate until needed.
- PASTRY DOUGH:
- Place flour on work surface, stir in the salt, and drop the butter onto the flour.
- With a bench scraper or metal spatula, chop the butter and flour together until combined. Don't overwork the mixture - you want to see chunks of butter larger than peas.
- Begin drizzling the water over the mixture with one hand, while flipping and tossing it with the other. Again, don't over do it! It should be a crumbly mess at this point.Use your metal utensil to form the dough into a rough rectangle about 5"x 8".
- Roll out dough to approximately 6"x10", using the metal scraper to form straight edges. Keeping the short edge facing you, Flip the bottom edge up to the middle (it will be crumbly...just do the best you can) and the the top edge down to the bottom. This will create three equal sized layers. Give the dough a turn to the left, lightly flouring the surface if necessary to keep it from sticking, and repeat. Repeat 3 more times. Wrap snugly in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (It can be refrigerated for several days.)
- ASSEMBLY: If your dough has been refrigerated more than an hour, place it - still wrapped in plastic - on the counter to warm up for 20-30 minutes.
- Heat oven to 400 F. Cover two baking sheets with parchment.
- On lightly floured surface, follow the previous method and roll and fold it two more times. Add flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking.
- Roll dough out into a rectangle that is approximately 14"x24". Using a round cutter that is the size of your potsticker press (about 4"), cut circles as close together as possible. As you work, stack the dough scraps on top of each other to keep the layers intact when you re-roll them.
- Whisk together the egg white and 1 teaspoon water.
- Lift one round at a time and place on the potsticker press. (Flour the potsticker press as needed.) With finger or pastry brush, spread a little egg white around the perimeter.
- Place 1 teaspoon filling in the center and fold the press over. Press firmly along the rounded edge for a good seal. (If you aren't using a press, fold the dough over the filling and press edges with fork.) Place on prepared baking sheet, keeping puffs at least ½" apart.
- You can roll the scraps one time. They won't be quite as flaky, but they're still very good! Cut remaining rounds and discard any scraps.
- Poke a fork in the center of each puff one time, brush lightly with egg white mixture, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Use spatula to move puffs to a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with icing once the puffs are lukewarm.
Stir the berries and sugar together and bring to a boil.
Stir cornstarch mixture into the hot berries and cook until thickened.
Chop (don’t blend!) the cold butter into the flour.
Yup, it’s a little messy, but flip the flour with one hand while you drizzle water over it with the other. You can doooo it!
It’s going to look like this the first time you roll it. It’s okay. Really!
It’s a crumbly mess, but fold it into thirds. Just do your best!
See? It looks a lot better when you get to the third roll/fold.
Roll dough out thin and cut into 4-inch circles.
Re-roll your stack of scraps. Stacking them keeps the butter layers going in the right direction.
Add the filling. Not too much – about a teaspoon. Any more and it will really ooze out.
Poke each puff once with a fork and brush with egg white. Bake!
Drizzle or dust – either way is delicious.
Don’t let those bears get the upper hand here. Put on your hiking boots, strap a can of bear spray to your hip, and hit the woods for some wild mountain huckleberries. Those little gems are priceless indeed, and worth every single damn mosquito bite!
Lorinda